Sophie Turner and James McAvoy Nailed it in Dark Phoenix

Talk about a little serious doom and gloom and what you get is the next flick from the X-Men universe ‘Dark Phoenix’. There is a touch of classic comics, but the pitch- dark gloom generally departs here from what we regularly see. Things are a bit power-mad, and there is a lot of perplexities before the hell breaks loose in this starry theatrical presentation. Dark Phoenix which was supposed to premiere February 14th, but now has been pushed ahead to June 7th. This is perhaps for all the right reasons, because Dark Phoenix is the lovey-dovey story you will be waiting for on Valentine’s Day. It is the stern overcast picture that will simply blow your minds off.

Dark Phoenix follows the story of Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) as a young girl who patents deviant abilities. From there, Charles Xavier (a sexy bald handicapped James McAvoy) admits her into his school for the gifted to help her train in how to administer her newfound abilities. However, his years of work are for the nil as Jean Grey loses control in this latest film.

Jean Grey had killed her parents, and Xavier tries to keep her from recalling her dark past, or her inner darkness. He is there to her aid, but quite visibly is also responsible for all the bad that has been going around.

Michael Fassbender in his spectacular portrayal of Magneto affirms that the pain, the rage, and the agony is sourced by the people behind Jean. While Jean, if anything, is merely the devil’s advocate It will be interesting to see how the movie will try to humanize a character that has killed her own parents, flipped cars like game cards, has been involved in the carnage murder of soldiers with helicopter blades, in addition to doing other villainous stuff.

There are thankfully more layers to James McAvoy’s character. He is remorseful, and like a true virtuoso, he handles all his shades with sheer perfection. We are certainly not thrilled about him chopping his mane off. But the fact that he is nailing this look so elegantly too makes McAvoy deserve a standing ovation. Sophie Turner is gorgeous, unfathomable and an absolute killer in every scene. Her transition from wildness to tranquility is nothing short of a delight.

The visuals are stunning, tragically dark, but still stunning. The shattering of glass, head-on car crashes, the magical powers, the armed brawls, the golden shimmer on Jean Grey’s face, are all so finely placed and well detailed, even against a dimly lit aura. No wonder it is a magnum piece of art. And the creatives behind it must have pulled over hopes that it generates similar numbers at the box office. The scenes quickly shift from quaint countryside residencies to galactic battles. Though the transitions seem bizarre, the aesthetics are well kept.

Perhaps the only issue that arises is there are a lot of such movies, and they are now spreading out like fleas. I cannot simply count the number of trailers of dark thrillers/ fantasies I have seen in only this month. Things get a bit drab and soulless when there is prevalent darkness with not even slight dashes of light entertainment. A film should be entertaining, keep the harshness for the real world.

All the dialogues; however, were ingeniously scripted. They were in fact, intelligent quotations that carried an uncanny eloquence related to the themes of the movie. The idea of seeing my favorite Game of Thrones character as a conflicted villain is simply exciting. Turner was perfection when she fed the disgraceful Ramsay Bolton to his own hounds. She was powerfully subtle. She is much more demented here, and given her versatile performances, we are sure she will not disappoint at all.